中国西南早期对外交通——先秦两汉的南方丝绸之路

Sino-Foreign Communication in Southwestern China via the Southern Silk Road during the Pre-Qin/Han Dynasty period

中外古文献里多有先秦两汉时期中国西南对外交通的记载。古希腊罗马文献中关于东方的"赛里斯"、"长寿者"等貌似怪诞现象的记述,并不完全是无稽之谈,而有着几分中国古史传说的真实素地,在上古时代的中国西南有迹可寻,应是古希腊罗马作家根据他们在中亚和印度时的耳闻所作的记述,表明当时已有从中国西南至印度和中亚的交通线。先秦两汉中国古文献的有关记载,可以证实中国西南早期对外交通的实际情况。成都平原三星堆文化和金沙遗址考古中不少印度和近东文化因素的发现与研究,则从考古学上证明了商周时期中国西南对外交通的存在。

Sino-foreign communication through southwestern China during the pre-Qin/Han dynasty period has been well documented in ancient literature both in China and abroad.The seemingly strange records of the Oriental 'Seres' and 'long-lived people' in ancient Greek and Roman works are not completely baseless fantasies;they may have a foundation in ancient Chinese historical records and legends about remote antiquity in the southwestern part of the country.These are probably stories ancient Greek and Roman writers heard when they travelled to central Asia and India.The fact itself suggests that there were routes connecting southwestern China with India and Central Asia at the time.Related Chinese records of this period attest to early foreign interaction in southwestern China,while the finding of and research on cultural elements from India and the Near East from the Sanxingdui and Jinsha sites on the Chengdu Plain provide archaeological evidence for foreign interaction with southwestern China during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.